Jahana Hayes enters the national spotlight with 5th District primary win

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If the national media took notice of Jahana Hayes and her unlikely run for Congress before Tuesday’s trouncing of Democratic front-runner Mary Glassman, Hayes is in a brighter spotlight today.

With good reason.

Not only is Hayes’ journey from teenage motherhood in Waterbury’s projects to the 2016 National Teacher of the Year compelling to liberals and conservatives, but the political newcomer from Wolcott is among a wave of minority women who have jumped into the 2018 midterm elections to challenge Republican control of Congress.

“What we have here is the making of a national figure who probably serves as an inspiration to a significant number of people across the country,” said political observer Gary Rose, who chairs the department of Government, Politics and Global Studies at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. “Should she win this seat, it is going to be a national story — it already is a national story.”

By midday Wednesday, one day after Hayes won 62 percent of the vote over the endorsed candidate in the 5th District Democratic primary, cable networks, national media outlets and metropolitan news organizations were requesting interviews with the charismatic former Waterbury high school teacher.

But before she honored those requests, Hayes wanted to thank student volunteers at her campaign’s storefront headquarters in downtown Waterbury.

“I wanted to engage people of all ages and backgrounds and get them off their sofas and out of their homes to vote, and that is what happened overwhelmingly in the 5th District,” Hayes told a crowd of Connecticut reporters and camera crews after giving hugs to a dozen youths. “We had people voting for the first time and people who hadn’t voted in years and all kinds of people saying ‘Teach me how to be involved.’”

In contrast, the national spotlight is not on Hayes’ opponent in the Nov. 6 election, Republican Manny Santos, the endorsed candidate who won a solid victory over challengers Ruby Corby O’Neill and Rich Dupont.

Santos posted a short primary victory message on Facebook and conducted several interviews, including one with Fox 61, instead of hosting a Wednesday press conference.

The GOP in Washington, D.C., has yet to congratulate Santos, who is running as a Trump Republican, aligned with the crackdown on illegal immigration, with U.S.-imposed tariffs and with strong support of the Second Amendment.

“Voters understand what is at stake,” said Santos, who won 52 percent of the GOP primary vote. “It is an important race.”

At stake is the Republicans best chance to capture a seat in Connecticut’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation. The Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to hold onto the seat being vacated by three-term Democrat U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty.

If Democrats succeed, Hayes will be with the first African-American congresswoman in Connecticut history. Nationwide, Hayes is among a group of diverse, first-time female candidates running to make Congress look more like everyday America.

The most dramatic local example of the trend was the late June primary defeat of veteran New York House Democrat Joseph Crowley by a 28-year-old progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

On Tuesday, Hayes routed Glassman, a former eight-term first selectman of Simsbury who had impressed district Democratic leadership with her organization and her fundraising. Hayes, unknown except for her 15 minutes of fame as the Teacher of the Year and as the candidate U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., encouraged, surpassed Glassman’s war chest in 90 days, raising more than $500,000.

“It was an astounding victory on Tuesday that speaks loudly to the direction of the Democratic party in the state,” Rose said. “There has been an awful lot of talk about Cortez in New York, but we are starting to see parts of the progressive movement in the party in Connecticut as well.”

Hayes’ eldest daughter — the one who Hayes was pregnant with when she dropped out of high school at 17 — is now a teacher, and was among those at Hayes’ campaign headquarters on Tuesday.

“Her victory has given me a lot of hope that I really haven’t felt in politics in a long time,” said daughter Asia Clermont, 28. “It makes me feel that people understand we are more similar than different, and that representative democracy should be representative.”